MOSCOW, 13 February 2023. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey describing the levels of trust in mass media.

The events of the past year have been a serious challenge both for the national mass media and for the audience.  Amidst a plentiful media agenda it is important for the content consumers to get unbiased news about the current situation in the country and abroad in a timely manner. According to a January survey findings, the level of trust in different types of mass media in Russia are substantially different, with the traditional media being still dominant.

Central television is the most trustworthy media in Russia (53%). This is followed by local television, with a small but still statistically significant gap: almost half of Russians trust regional TV channels (47%). For the listed mass media the index under consideration* was 24 p. in January this year (given a range from −100 to 100 p.). The other information sources considerably lose to television in terms of this indicator.

Russians equally trust the following media:   

• news, analytical, official websites (35%, Trust Index — 8 p.);
• central and regional press media (33% each, indices — 8 and 9 p. respectively);
• Telegram channels (31%, index — 8 p.).

Every fifth respondent trust in regional and central radio (25% and 24% respectively, indices — 7 and 5 p.).

The least trustworthy media are messengers (WhatsApp, Viber, etc.) and social networks/online blogs. The shares of those who do not trust them (35% and 43%) exceed the shares of those who do (27% and 23%), which results in negative index values: −8 and −20 p. respectively.

Thus, despite high rates of transformations in the common media landscape influenced by digital technologies, the society still prefers the traditional ways of getting information.

* Index is calculated as a difference of “trust” and “distrust” responses.  Index can vary between −100 and +100. The higher the index value, the higher the levels of trust in mass media are.

VCIOM-Sputnik Russian nationwide telephone survey was conducted 14 January, 2023. A total of 1,600 Russians aged 18 and over took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interviews, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted according to social and demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of January 14, 2023:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.8264; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0224; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1302. Calculations are based on the corporate standard: https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/ * CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents. ** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not. ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.